


Things you said that I wasn't meant to hear

by Laramie



Series: Things you said [12]
Category: Downton Abbey
Genre: Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, Fluff, Happy, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-10
Updated: 2015-04-10
Packaged: 2018-03-22 05:59:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 629
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3717760
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Laramie/pseuds/Laramie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Thomas is having a good morning when he overhears Jimmy say something.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Things you said that I wasn't meant to hear

**Author's Note:**

> Prompted from the "things you said..." meme by abbys-jam-juggler: "Things you said that I wasn't meant to hear".

**March 1925**

Jimmy had been working late at the pub for the last six days straight, so on this morning, his first day off, Thomas was even more than usually careful to be quiet as he got out of bed, washed and shaved in their bathroom (which was barely big enough to stand in), and made his way downstairs.

He was feeling particularly cheerful that morning; the knowledge of making a happy life with Jimmy Kent burned brightly in his chest, despite their need for secrecy. The second bedroom in their York flat contained only a litter of bits of broken clocks, a wonky table, and assorted treasured items and “it’ll come in useful one day” junk. It was supposed to be Thomas’s work room, but somehow other rubbish kept finding its way in there too.

Thomas dodged the cat on the bottom step and ambled into the kitchen, which was outdated but caught the sunlight beautifully on mornings like this. He gave the tabby a bowl of tuna before putting two pieces of bread under the grill and making himself a cup of tea. He was in no hurry, he decided; the beauty of owning the shop you worked in was that if you fancied taking far too long over your tea in the morning, you could do just that.

Tabitha ate the tuna with indecent haste. Thomas always wished that she would be more refined, but the truth was that around food she acted like a starving creature.

Leaning against the sink, Thomas ate the toast without bothering to get a plate, spilling crumbs on the floor in just the way that always caused Jimmy to scold him. Tabitha would scoop them up in a moment. He watched her lick her paws delicately as he ate, before leaving the room. Her footsteps pattered lightly on the stairs as she went to claim the warm spot on the covers next to Jimmy.

Thomas knew that she would be disappointed; he could hear the creaks on the floor above as Jimmy got out of bed and shuffled across the bare wood. Sipping his second cup of tea, Thomas heard Jimmy relieving himself in the bathroom (a sound which had seemed distasteful at first but now seemed charmingly intimate), before coming down the stairs, murmuring something rhythmically in time with his footsteps.

As he came nearer, Thomas could make out him singing: “ _Thoomas Baarrow, Thoomas Baarrow, Thomas Thomas Thoomas, Thoomas Baarrow..._ Morning ‘Bithy.”

Thomas grinned. The footsteps paused; Thomas pictured him stroking the cat. “ _’Bithhy Baarrow, Thoomas Baarrow... Jiimmy Baarrow..._ Hmm... Sounds all right, eh ‘Bithy?  _Thoomas Baarrow, Thoomas Baarrow, Thoo-_ ”

Jimmy froze as he entered the kitchen and saw Thomas leaning against the sink, cup in hand. Jimmy immediately blushed furiously. “I thought you would have gone down already,” he said, rubbing a hand through his sleep-ruffled hair.

“I was just having my tea.” Thomas lifted the cup to demonstrate.

“Well I hope you left me some hot water.” Jimmy crossed the room and bent his head over the stove, apparently determined to pretend that he had not just floated into the kitchen singing Thomas’s name. Finding plenty of almost-boiling water, Jimmy re-filled the teapot and took Thomas’s now-empty cup from his hand to pour himself a morning cuppa from the second-hand teabags. Thomas surrendered his cup easily, used to Jimmy’s habit of reducing washing up wherever possible, and still unable to stop smiling.

“It’s ten past nine,” Jimmy prompted Thomas after a glance at the clock on the wall that Thomas had made himself.

“I’ll be off then.” Thomas leaned in for a kiss. “See you later... Jimmy Barrow.”

Jimmy blushed again, but said only, “Love you.”

“Love you too.”

Thomas smiled for the rest of the day.

**Author's Note:**

> Completely stole the idea from a MLIA post I saw a hundred years ago. There's a copy of it here: http://nuryasminn.tumblr.com/post/209400990


End file.
